Exploring The 64th Floor

Jean saw that Zack was eager to start looking around already. He was fidgeting the entire time like a little kid while Jean was talking to Roger. Since it didn't look like Zack could wait any longer, she looked at the two and said, "Let's go." Jean took the lead since she knew the floor and started guiding them to what she thought were the interesting places here.

Jean didn't what the areas were called but the first place that they went to was a giant room filled with computers and other machinery. She had no idea what any of the things in this room were but she was pretty sure that it was something that Zack would like. Along the way, there were a few people who saw them and gave them weird looks but didn't say or do anything else.

Immediately upon seeing the room, Zack rushed past Jean and Samantha who were in the front and into the room with all the computers. He jumped from one thing to another, naming all of them out loud quickly and accurately with no difficulty whatsoever. Jean and Samantha looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. Neither of them understood any of the names or words that Zack was saying.

"Wow, if only these were available for the public as well," Zack said while looking at one of the newer models for computers.

"What would you use it for?" Jean asked him.

"Video games of course. Is that even a question?"

"Not really." Jean rolled her eyes. She should've expected that answer from him. Normally, video games weren't even a thing down here but Zack's father was a scraper that went around the oceans collecting relics of the past. He would often bring back old game disks and other things for him. He would also often tell her and Samantha stories of the things that he found outside the dome whenever they visited. But often he is outside and not at home, so it was very rare that they ever got to talk with him.

"Hm, what's this thing here for?" Zack walked over to a small square hole on one of the walls and examined it.

"That's to let air in and out," Jean told him.

The entire building had no windows, but it did occasionally have a small hole the size of a hand here and there for air to come in and go out. And the oxygen down here didn't come from trees or plants. Instead, it was extracted through water from the ocean by some kind of chemical progress. All the carbon dioxide and heat are collected through filters on the roof of the dome and disposed of in some way that wouldn't cause the oceans to become highly toxic or cause the atmosphere to become even hotter. Since if I.C.E. did that, it would pretty much go against what they're trying to do and make things worse.

"Oh." Zack bent his body in an awkward angle to peek outside the small hole. "I think I can see my apartment building from here."

"Can you really now?" Samantha asked him as she walked over to one of them as well and kneeled down to take a look through it as well. "Amazing..." Samantha's eyes narrowed as she released that she just got tricked and that there was a screen in the way blocking it. It was impossible to see through the tiny holes and get a look at the outside.

Of course, Jean already knew this since she had done the same thing before. She stood still and watched as Samantha walked up to Zack and slapped him on the back as revenge for tricking her. "OW! Stop doing that!"

Zack hopped away from Samantha while holding his back in pain and bumped into one of the machines. *Clank!* The lid of the computer fell off to reveal a bunch of wires and other gears and parts. But strangely enough, in the center of the entire thing was a piece of folded paper.

"Oh cr*p." Zack didn't seem to have noticed the paper and Samantha wasn't paying attention. He quickly took the metal cover and tried placing it back on the machine but was stopped by Jean.

"Wait, there's something in there." She grabbed Zack's wrist and took the cover from him. Despite how thin and light it looked, it was rather heavy. Or maybe it was just because she was weak and that added with how she was still a little tired made it seem heavier than it actually was.

Jean put the metal cover on top of one of the other machines and reached in to take out the piece of paper wedged in between the wires. She made sure to be careful to not touch any of the machinery or wires in case of getting electrocuted or breaking the machine.

"What's that?" Zack peeked over Jean's shoulder while Samantha walked over and did the same. Jean unfolded the paper and found a sequence of numbers scribbled sloppily on it.

[30-02 50-05 94-20 93-77 12-40]

"Zack, do you know what this might mean or say?" Jean asked while handing him the paper for him to get a better look at it.

"What makes you think that I know what this means? Just because it came out of a machine doesn't mean that I know what it is." Zack took the paper anyway and looked at it. "It might be the password to the wi-fi or something. Wait, actually no." Zack corrected his statement and said, "It's probably not that. It's definitely something else." Zack stared at the numbers and dashes on the paper for a straight minute before shaking his head and saying, "Yeah, I don't know."

He handed the paper back to Jean and suggested that they just put it back where they found it because it could be something important. Jean took a look at the paper again before folding it and carefully wedging it back between the wires in the machine. She really didn't know why there would be a piece of paper there but didn't question it. They put the cover back on the machine and Zack tapped it a few times to make sure that it was secure.

"Okay, let's pretend that that never happened," Zack said after they finished 'fixing' the machine.

"Anyway, where to next?" Zack looked at Jean. He had practically finished looking at everything in the room and found nothing left of interest in it.

"I guess we can go to the lounge," Jean suggested. It was where the employees went during their lunch breaks or dinner breaks depending on what shift they were working. But most of the time, there is no one in there because there are many places in the building where they can get food and eat at already. The designers of the building probably did not take that into consideration when creating an area for the lounge.

However, there were a few vending machines and old arcade machines in there. Jean never really liked them because she found them too simple and boring but it was probably something that Zack would like so it wasn't such a bad idea to go there. There might be something in there that Samantha liked as well.

"Eh, sure why not." Zack shrugged his shoulders and once again told Jean to lead the way. Samantha didn't care where they were going and just followed lazily. The lounge was just a couple of rooms away and while they were walking there, they passed an odd man. He was wearing a face mask and also carrying a garbage bag that looked like it had something very heavy in it. It was the first time that Jean had ever seen the man in all the times that she has been here.

As they walked past him, the man didn't even look at them. He had an empty look in his eyes where he looked like he was going to kill someone. The man noticed that he was being watched and shot the three a murderous look.

Jean almost jumped back in surprise by the sudden aggression but caught herself before she did and averted her elsewhere. She saw that Zack had also done the same and it was only Samantha who was still looking at the man. She had a confused expression on her face since she didn't know why the man was looking at them that way.

"What? Do you need something from us?" Samantha asked the man. Jean and Zack stopped in their tracks and looked at her with stunned faces. Could Samantha really not tell that there was something very wrong with that man and that they should just ignore him.

The man stopped walking as well and turned and looked at the three with his cold dead eyes. "In fact yes, I do need something from you lot."

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